posted 21 December 2004 07:27 PM EDT (US)
So you've decided to do something different and you've passed over Leto's Automatons or Prometheus' Valor (*shudder*)? Let's see what you're bringing to the table: You are able to place this man-eating plant up to three times. It cannot be healed and is fairly easy to destroy, so it is important that consideration is given to how it is used. Here are the statistics for the plant: Hack Damage: 15 As you can see, it is fairly durable with 400 Hit Points, but it does seem to fall quickly to focused arrow fire or an attack by Heroes or Myth Units. The plant also has a special attack which inflicts an instant kill on it's target (it swallows the victim), however it cannot use this special attack on Villagers, Dwarfs, Fishing Boats, Heroes or Myth Units. The special attack recharges every 15 seconds. The plant can easily take out 5 Hoplites and take two with it's instant kill. It can even take out 3 Hoplites under Town Centre fire. Looking at the above, we can see that the Carnivora is just as useful as the Spider Lair. However, it also gets a Crush attack and it can be used on water and that is where the beauty of the Carnivora lies. I will now look at the best uses of the Carnivora plant. When you reach Classical, you can start to scout the seas with not only your boats, but also with your Servant and Caladria (see below). This will enable you to quickly locate enemy fishing operations and Docks. Once you have discovered the enemy, three options open up. If you're very lucky and a skilled micro player, it is possible to capture all three options at once (see below). 1) You can cast Carnivora on an enemy fishing operation. The Carnivora cannot swallow the fishing boats but it can disrupt all three and clear themn away from the fish whilst inflicting damage. It is a good idea to bring the Servant in to try and destroy the fishing boats at this stage and you can add Biremes as they are produced. 2) You can cast Carnivora as close to an enemy dock as you can. The enemy can no longer safely produce military ships from that dock. This is because the Carnivora will use it's instant attack on any military ship that emerges from the dock. Fishing ships will escape but they will be damaged. This could force the enemy to garrison fishing ships to fire on the carnivora. It will also force the enemy to send military ships to attack the Carnivora, which gives you plenty of time to build up a fleet to attack the enemy fishing. In the mean time, your Carnivora will be inflicting 10 Crush damage per hit on the Dock until it is taken down. Again, the Servant can assist with the dock. 3) If you find that you have been beaten to the water then the enemy may have Arrow Ships waiting. Cast the Carnivora on top of the ships. This will deliver an instant kill to one ship and immediately focus the fire of any others whilst you bring up reinforcements. In this situation, it is better to pull the Servant back and use it to heal your fleet as they arrive and engage the enemy. As mentioned above, sometimes you can strike gold (or make it if very clever) and have a fishing operation right next to a dock that is now producing arrow ships. The placement of the Carnivora becomes easy and can be devastating to your opponent in the fight for the water. Carnivora can also be useful to guard narrow areas of water. Also be aware that Carnivora is very vulnerable to Water Myth Units and if Oranos chooses Hyperion in Heroic, the Nereid can be used to guard the plant. A good player can counter Carnivora with Heroic Fleet or ranged Heroes or Myth Units on the shore. Of course, both Gods will benefit from the Carnivora on a water map, but Gaia has the edge. Her extra fast wood income from Gaia's forest, her Lush around her Docks, her cheaper economic techs (to get Hand Axe early) and her sturdy fishing boats which can easily escape a raid. Now this is where the use of Carnivora can be trickier. However, there are many uses for Carnivora on land. Always bear in mind that the plant requires Military back-up in order to be fully effective. It is static so it is very vulnerable to archers. Heroes and Myth Units are a threat to it too. Hero Turma are a great guard for the Carnivora. As long as small precautions are taken, Carnivorae are very capable and versatile: 1) They can be used as a sentinel. Carnivora can be used in exactly the same way as Spider Lair. Unless a military attack includes archers, Heroes or Myth Units this can be an effective way of guarding key buildings or Town Centres. 2) They can assist in a defence of the base. If you are building yourself in against an assault, you can place the Carnivora to plug a gap that is being attacked by the enemy. I have seen this done when facing a stream of Thoth Elephants from Isis. The Egyptian player lost one Elephant to the plant's instant kill and immediately changed tactics. The advantage here is that you can send your own military units in to help protect the plant. 3) The plant can be used on a building in a forward base. If you find that Kronos has timeshifted a Counterbarracks nearby or if Loki has built a Longhouse, the Carnivora can be placed next to it. The plant will attack the building and instantly kill units that emerge (except Heroes or Myth Units). The enemy will be forced to place his gather point elsewhere. If backed up by an assault of Murmillos on the base, this can quickly accelerate the collapse of a rush. 4) The plant can be used to raid villagers off a resource if you find them unguarded. This can allow Gaia to move in and build at the resource or Oranos to move his military quickly into place or build a Skypassage there. It will also force the enemy to send units to assist (if he can 5) The plant can be used to assist in the assault on an enemy Town Centre. If placed next to the Town Centre when it is under attack by your other units, it will scatter villagers and inflict crushing damage on the structure. If microed, it can also pick off incoming enemy military. In fact, if done well, it may even be possible to launch a rush on an enemy Town Centre early in Classical using the Caladria (for Line of Sight and healing), Murmillos upgraded with Shark Bite (see below) and Copper Shields and the Carnivora. 6) The plant can be used to help protect vulnerable Citizens and manors from raids. They might fall to the attackers, but they will buy you enough time to send help. As you can see, the plant is extremely versatile on land and I am sure that there are many other uses for it that I haven't been able to think of. Both Gods can benefit a lot from the plant on land. Oranos in particular can find the more offensive uses beneficial, and the plant can be well-guarded by an upgraded Sky Passage and vice-versa. For Gaia the plant can be a huge help if she needs to defend, because she can also use Gaia's Forest. The carnivora also works well with Dryads when attacking a Town Centre so both Gods can make use of this advantage. It can also support Behemoths. I am not sure if it benefits from Mythic Rejuvenation, but if it does then Hekate can benefit both Gods (and Lampades also inflict Crush Damage). Satyrs can protect the plant from Myth Units and Archers. It can be used at the same time as Vortex too or Tartarian Gate if placed well. It can also disrupt the building of a Titan gate. So as you can see, the Carnivora is the only Classical Age God Power that can directly assist you when trying to stop or stall a Titan Gate. Carnivora takes 2 minutes to recharge. (Costs 125 Gold, 15 Favour & 3 Population) The Servant is unique. It is the only Classical Age offensive water Myth Unit available to any of the 12 Major Gods. It can also heal at the rate of .75 hit points per second. Here are it's stats: Hack Damage: 8 Looking at these stats, you can see that the Servant is the only naval unit with a hack attack. This can be a huge bonus in the Classical Age water fight. The Crush damage will also allow the Servant to do damage to Docks and Arrow Ships also have low Crush Armour. If two of these units are mixed into a naval battle and are well-microed, they can cause a lot of trouble for the enemy. In the sections above, some mention has been made of possible uses for the Servant. His presence is likely to force the enemy to micro to counter the Servant and can also prompt the enemy to spend resources on Heroic Fleet, thus slowing down his Arrow Ship production. The Servant can also be used to take out enemy fishing and can protect your own fishing. His ability to heal is also invaluable. If you have two Servants, they can help to keep each other alive. They can repair damaged ships and fishing boats. They also have a healing range of 12, so they can heal friendly units close to the shore in an emergency. If you want your Servant to heal during battle, it is best to put him behind your fleet and place him on 'Stand Ground'. However, it is better to use Caladriae for this(see below) as they have a better rate of healing and can escape danger more easily. Finally, the Servant is fast and makes a good scout for the water early in the game. Only the Hippocampus or a Greek Trireme makes a better water scout this early in the game. Either God will benefit enormously from the Servant when fighting the water. Gaia can make the most of the Servant, however. She can claim Pick-Axe and Shaft-Mining earlier in order to produce enough Gold to create more. Her Forest also allows for faster naval production as back-up. She also has stronger Fishing Boats which will help your Servant to keep them alive if they are raided. (Costs 100 Wood, 25 Gold, 10 Favour and 2 Population) The Caladria is basically a scouting unit which travels as fast as a Pegasus. However, it has less Hit Points, Less Line of Sight, Less Armour and costs a lot more to create and are slower to train. However, what makes up for this is their excellent healing ability. Here are their stats: Hack Damage: 0 As you can see, the Caladria has no attack at all. It should primarily be used in the same way as a Pegasus, but with more care due to it's more fragile nature and it's costliness. Use it to Scout for whatever your strategy demands...villagers, Town Centres, resources, enemy armies or bases; or use it to gain line of sight for using a God Power. Because of it's low Population cost, it is worth fielding two Caladria at least, so that they can heal each other if they run into danger. Bear in mind, that with a speed of 6, they are likely to escape almost any ranged threat quickly and with minimal damage but they must be microed well if you want to keep them alive. The Caladria has a very good healing rate at 1.5 Hit Points per second, which is another reason to field more than one. They can also be used to heal a navy during a water battle whilst your Servant joins the fight (see above) and usually make a better choice than the Servant in this respect. Caladriae make good protectors for a travelling army, particularly in pairs. They can stay just bhind the battle lines and heal friendly troops during battle. Finally, Caladriae can also keep economic units such as Citizens and Caravans alive for longer if they are raided, just until help arrives. They can also be used to restore injured Citizens and Caravans after a raid. Both Gods can make excellent use of the Caladria. Gaia's fast wood gathering and cheaper economy mean that she can quickly field more of the Caladria unit. She can also, keep her already fast-producing navy alive, which means that she can spend the wood and gold saved on other units such as Turma and Cheiroballistae, or on Towers or more buildings. The Caladria can also keep the stronger Fishing Boats and Caravans and the faster Citizens (with Channels) alive for longer. The Scouting ability is particularly useful for Oranos. Oranos already knows where the Town Centres are, so he can use the Caladriae solely to seek out prey for his raids, or perhaps for good spots to set up Sky Passages. The Caladria's healing ability is particularly useful for raiding, as Oranos can quickly retreat his raiders back to a Caladria for a bit of healing if needed. If the Caladria's healing ability is also combined with Hyperion's Heroic Renewal and Hekate's Mythic Regeneration, this can give Oranos an incredibly regenerative army. (Costs 200 Food, 15 Favour) Once researched, this technology will increase the Hack Attack of all Murmillos and Murmillo Heroes by 15%. This is huge. The Murmillo already has an Attack score of 8, which is equal to a Hoplite or a Hersir. An Ares Hoplite can be upgraded with 10% Attack and a Hersir cannot have it's Attack upgraded through a God in Classical. When all possible line, armoury and God upgrades are researched in Classical, the Hero Murmillo with Shark Bite is the best all-round infantry unit in the game. It need only fear ranged-pierce units, Throwing Axemen and Egyptian Axemen. The Hero Murmillo also becomes a deadly Myth Unit killer when armed with Bite of the Shark. Oranos benefits the most here, because he lends an extra 10% speed to the Murmillo which transforms it into an even deadlier machine (think Murmillo Blitzkrieg). One Oranos Hero Murmillo upgraded through Oceanus and assigned a Cladria can be devastating for a Classical opponent. In Heroic, any Hero Murmillos can benefit from the Caladria, Bite of the Shark AND Heroic Renewal if Hyperion is chosen. Gaia can use her Murmillos more defensively if she is attacked too early. One or two Hero Murmillos in the base with Bite of the Shark, a Caladria and a Carnivora for back up can soon see off most early rushes and can strike back as a devastating counter-attack on an enemy's forward base. Gaia can also more easily gear her economy towards a fast production of Murmillos if need be and because she is not using Favour on Automatons, she can afford to use Hero upgrades a little easier. (Costs 200 Food and 25 Favour) Once researched, this will increase the Attack of all Katapeltes and Katapeltes Heroes by 15% and will also increase their speed by 10%. Again, this is huge. Although the Katapeltes only has 5 Hack Attack, this bonus can make the unit a fairly effective piece of standard infantry with an attack of 5.75. When combined with the triple bonus against Cavalry or the 2.5 times bonus against Siege, we can see why the extra speed comes in useful. Let's not forget the 7 times bonus against Myth Units when converted to a Hero, which also brings an increase in speed. A Katapeltes increase in speed, combined with it's extra attack makes Oceanus one God that you do not want to raid with Cavalry if you value your horses! Siege will also find it almost impossible to get past Katapeltes and Myth Units cannot hope to compete Katapeltes Heroes upgraded with Weightless Mace. Use Weightless Mace Katapeltes to protect exposed Citizens or Caravans from raiders or to protect a base that is under attack from fast units and siege. Hero Katapeltes make better counters to Myth Units than Hero Murmillos. They are more expensive to upgrade but they will perform better. Oranos. He adds an extra 10% speed to the Weightless Mace Katapeltes, making it one of the fastest units in the game. When upgraded to Hero, this brings the Katapeltes to the point where it can not only chase down Cavalry, but also kill them quickly. A Hero Katapeltes through Oranos/Oceanus can also challenge archers and Cheiroballistae, particularly if backed up with Turma and Caladriae. They will still need to be wary of Axemen and Throwing axemen. Again, Gaia's better economy can help her to produce more Katapeltes and possibly upgrade more to Heroes. The Weightless Mace Katapeltes can make an excellent addition to the defence of Gaia's economy and home base, however. Oceanus is very strong on water for Gaia and strong on land. He is strong on water for Oranos and very strong on land. When Oceanus is fully explored and understood, it becomes clear just how many strategies are available with him, or just how he can assist gainst a particular opponent strategy. For instance, Leto can be doomed against a Hersir rush or a Krush. Oceanus can repel rushes and raids much easier than Leto in many cases. The strengths of Oceanus reverberate right through until Mythic, whereas Prometheus can lose some value later in the game as Prometheans become less effective whilst Oceanus' Infantry become more effective. I hope that this guide provides some food for thought and hope that others will be encouraged to look at the Ocean God more closely when playing Gaia or Oranos. Your comments, suggestions and criticisms are also more than welcome, of course. Cheers [This message has been edited by Centaurus (edited 12-22-2004 @ 03:59 AM).]
Crush Damage: 10
HP: 400
Hack Armor: 34%
Pierce Armor: 30%
). Later in the game, the plant can be used to attack enemy trade routes and markets.
Crush Damage: 4
HP: 300
Hack Armor: 25%
Pierce Armor: 30%
Crush Armor: 80%
Speed: 5.5
Line of Sight: 16
HP: 125
Hack Armor: 10%
Pierce Armor: 20%
Speed: 6
Line of Sight: 16
